Tag Archives: fashion

My Fab Finds of 2010…

28 Dec

Another year has come and gone, and much like last year, I have no clue where the days went. I could spend endless hours sitting around with my friends from high school, remembering so many of the fun times of our teens just like it was yesterday. We’d talk about the fabulous hairspray metal bands of the 80’s, headlines, fashions and trends like we were still in class together. But if you asked me what I did last month, last week, even yesterday?… it all blurs together like cream in coffee. I should follow in the footsteps of the hilarious bogus talk show host, Jiminy Glick (played by comedian Martin Short) and use “Ginko Bilobo” to improve my memory. But like him, I’d probably forget to take it.

There are a few things, however, that I never forget as time goes on: my fabulous discoveries in the world of fashion and glamour. Once a hot find gets burned into my mind, I truly believe it is there to stay. Not only do I personally get the benefits of these little treasures, but I get to share them with the people around me! Nothing makes me happier than to talk about a product, look, style or sale that I have stumbled upon with my friends, family and blog followers. It is like graduating from the student to the teacher!

So, as I sit back and enjoy my memory-stimulating treats (rosemary-mint hot tea and those dark-skinned… umm…. berry things, the name escapes me), I will share with you a few of the things that Sassy found and fell in love with this year:

1.  Maybelline’s Eye Studio Lasting Drama Gel Eyeliner – I love the look of defined eyes with a deep black liner, but I could not find a pencil that had the stay power I wanted or a liquid that I could perfect. The oil-free formula of Maybelline’s Gel Eyeliner is highly pigmented for dramatic color and keeps going strong all day with its smudge-proof, water-proof wearability.  Although it was hard to master the look I wanted with the brush it came with, I decided to try something different. Which is how I came to fall in love with….

2.  Bare Escentuals’ Slanted Liner Brush – For those of you who feel like a five year old who can’t color inside the lines when using liquid/gel liners (like me), try a brush specifically designed for those who are straight-line challenged. This brush enables you to keep your hand straight in front of you without bending your arms in ways that would make Gumby frown. It works well with gel liners as well as powder eye shadows that can be used as eyeliners too. Plus it cleans up easily with regular soap and water and holds its shape. A must have brush in anyone’s collection.

3.  pureDKNY Perfume – Talk about squeaking in under the wire! I received a small bottle as part of a promotion that Sephora was running when I ordered my slanted liner brush two weeks ago. I’m a big fan of DKNY’s BeDelicious perfume, so I was happy to give this newer scent a try. I must say, it is totally different from BeDelicious. And that’s a good thing. With that scent focusing on top notes of apple and grapefruit, pureDKNY is primarily a floral perfume wrapped in the soothing scent of vanilla. Normally I lean towards citrus-type scents, but I absolutely love this one. I can see me wearing this as an every day scent. It’s genuine, soothing, simple and calm. And that’s exactly what we all need in our busy lives!

4.  bebe Logo Knit Top – I don’t care what age you are… everyone needs a little bit of bling in their closet, and bebe is well-known for their logo tops with some sparkle! The white logo top I found at bebe has half sleeves and is ribbed for a bit of extra style. It’s classic yet eye-catching, and is always worth a head turn or two when I wear it out. Even on a basic jeans kind of day, my bebe top makes me feel NYC chic!

5.  Vintage Leopard-Print Trench Coat – Some people call them thrift shops. Others call them vintage stores. I call them a gold mine… on the right day! Earlier this year, while looking for items for a costume party, I stumbled upon a brushed velvet animal-print trench coat with the original tags still attached ($75). It was stylish beyond belief and it was mine… for all of ten bucks.  Anyone who has ever watched “Sex and the City” knows that their infamous costume designer, Patricia Field, is the queen of mixing high-end designer fashions with off-the-wall vintage finds. I LOVE that! It inspires me to seek out great items at my local thrift store that can be worn “as is” or to be vogued up to push the style envelope.

6.  Cardigans, Cardigans, and more Cardigans – Before this year, the word “cardigan” brought to mind a four button, argyle sweater with the pizzazz of a slice of white bread. Yawn. This year, however, designers brought this layering piece to front of the class! Ruffles and lace, long and cropped, metallics and neutrals, buttons and belts… the styles were amazing. It brought a whole new dimension to my closet, and the mix and match possibilities were endless. And now that the colder temps are here, they are stunning and functional too!

7.  Over-The-Knee Boots – Usually when I think of high boots, visions of Goldie Hawn on “Laugh In” wearing her slamming white go-go boots always came to mind. (Did I just date myself?) For the past couple of years, the height of the boot has continuously been getting higher and higher. And with jeans getting skinnier and skinnier, the tucked-in pants look has been growing more popular. Of course, this look is NOT for everyone. I think when worn correctly on the right person, the OTK boot look just screams style and self-confidence.

As we all think back about what 2010 brought us, don’t forget to realize that on January 1st, we will be given 365 blank slates to use for whatever we want. Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, “Man’s mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.” We can expand our knowledge, learn new things, and develop new talents. I challenge you all to do, be or learn something new next year. You will be so glad you did!

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Letter From “The Editor” – Color My World

23 Nov

As I flipped through the fashion magazines that have been sent to me so far this month, one of my magazines really caught my interest. It wasn’t its beautiful fashions, make up looks, hair styles or flashy ads that made me take notice. It was its editor’s letter. Although I know that all magazines have a Letter from the Editor, it made me think about me and my own blog. I realize that each of my blog entries is written from the heart to all of my readers, kind of like a personal letter to each of you. I thought though that it might be nice to do my own version of a magazine’s Editor’s Letter and maybe start a new monthly trend. So here we go…


As I look at the load of laundry on my bedroom floor, I am mentally categorizing which basket I will have to put each piece of clothing in when I bring it to the basement to wash. I see jeans, a black sweater, a black pair of pants, a white t-shirt, a black sweater, a grey cami, a black cami, another black sweater, ANOTHER black sweater, a grey sweater, a grey cardigan, black socks, white socks, a black cardigan, a black pullover. Oh, and a purple tunic. ONE colorful item. You sensing a trend here?  Approximately 20 pieces of clothing, and only one of them had a color that did not appear on a TV show till after 1956. How come I didn’t notice until now that I was about as colorful as a character from one of the first episodes of “The Dick Van Dyke Show”?


When I go clothes shopping with my daughter, she always yells at me saying I seem to leave with tons of colorful bags, but they all seemed to be filled with items from the same color line: black and white. *Sigh* She is right. I must confess… I am afraid of color. I think that is because I have a powerfully pale skin tone and raging auburn red hair, and I feel that wearing color might draw attention to a potentially huge multi-hued faux pas. A horrific clashing of my coloring with my fashion shades. So I stick with blacks, whites, and shades that fall in between. The ultimate in safe. Only last year did I add two new colors to my wardrobe—purple and brown. Not really vibrant, huh? Sure, I have maybe an item or two of some other colors–lime green, gold, turquoise. But there they sit, tucked away in the back of the closet, sad and virtually unworn. Yawn.


Although standing out is something I never wanted to do in high school, I actually embrace it now that I’m older. The problem is I like to stand out with new styles, not new colors. I have a jazzy new pair of platform boots. In black. I just received a stylish ruffled cardigan. In white. And I have an awesome fleece zebra-print belted jacket. Yup, of course, in white and black. I need to change my mindset. Fast. I need to put myself out there. Now that I think about it, I ask myself why haven’t I taken notice of this sooner? I have to say that wearing bright colors in fashion brings about a newer sense of confidence when I wear them. They are a mood lifter, a smile maker. They make me walk taller and encourage me to make eye contact with people that I hope will walk away and wonder, “Hmmm. Who is she?” Why wouldn’t I want that feeling more often???


Tomorrow I am heading out to the mall to take my cousin, who is visiting from Italy, shopping at some of the popular stores here in America. Being so close to the holidays, I most likely won’t be buying a lot of things. But I will make a promise to myself to get one thing—a sweater, a top, a jacket—that stands out and makes me feel good about me. Something bright and totally out of my element! I challenge you to do the same. Step outside of your fashion comfort zone. Go ahead be bold… I dare you!!!


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Sex And Whose City?

16 Dec

After many long awaited months, I set aside some time this week to kick and watch the movie that has been on my “must see” list since all its hype came out. I hit the purchase button on my pay-per-view remote and watched “Sex and the City”. With a box of tissues in one hand and a stack of style magazines in the other, I sat glued on the couch watching every minute. And, just as predicted, it only took five minutes into the movie before I started to get the fashion itch. I saw dresses, jewelry, shoes and handbags that were beyond chic. Full skirted floral dresses with eccentric pins. Blue Manolo Blahnik stilettos with jeweled pointed toes. Drapes of pearls and chandelier earrings accessorizing thrift store finds to bring about a whole new trend. Even the makeup was natural yet stunning.

Immediately my mind began racing with vivid images of my own closet and what little add-ons I could infuse to get these trendy looks. I wanted to bring the marvel of Manhattan to my little Upstate New York town. The definition of “going to the city” where I live means driving to the Mall in my state’s capital, Albany. I wanted more. I wanted my area to know that Vera wasn’t just the waitress on Alice and Oscar was not always a grouch. Even with my full-time job as a Domestic Goddess, I know I could bring designer beauty to the ‘burbs.

fendiI took some time and read over articles which featured interviews with Patricia Field and Rebecca Weinberg, the fashion designers for “Sex and the City”. I browsed through stacks of Elle, Vogue and InStyle. Flip after flip, I looked for something I could pull off with my closet and my budge. After careful looking, I found a picture of a stick-thin blonde model wearing an outfit that I practically had in my closet right then. A pastel sweater with a plunging low collar, a pair of cropped pants, stiletto boots, and a long strand of pearls all topped off with a bold, short denim jacket. Of course mine was probably seven grand cheaper, but no matter. I had city chic in my walk-in and I was taking it to the streets.

The next day I had an appointment in the city… my city… and decided to wear my new ensemble. I had so much fun dressing. I did my hair in rollers. I applied my makeup with sheer precision. Never in a million years would have ever thought of putting this look together on my own. That would have been a risk and I tend to play it safe. But to be a Sex-ette I had to be a fashion risk taker. Decked out and ready to go, I grabbed my mini clutch and headed for the door. See, right away I have problems. I quickly realize a clutch does not hold a date book. A clutch does not hold a bottle of Motrin. A clutch does not hold a wallet complete with checkbook, supermarket discount cards and pictures of my kids. A clutch barely holds a lip gloss, cell phone and a full-sized pen. So now I need to put my other necessary items in a Wal-Mart bag just to keep in my car for when I am not carrying my clutch. My fashion statement is quickly turning into a fashion mumble. “I can still do this”, I tell myself. “I can still be the fashion diva that would make Carrie Bradshaw proud.”

Twenty minutes, five disco songs and one lip gloss touch up later, I arrived at my destination. I gave myself the final once-over as I grabbed my clutch and headed in to my appointment. Now, here’s the kicker. My appointment wasn’t in the local mall that houses all the trendy playgrounds like Macy’s, Sephora and NY & Co. It was next door to that mall at a medical professional building, complete with a designer blood lab and outpatient surgical center. No matter. Even if I was asked to model the one-size-does-not-fit-all paper gown, at least I had good shoes for it. With a smile on my face and my posture tight, I walked into the building. It took me all of one milli-second to realize I had gone beyond the lines of what my big city was ready for in regards to fashion. I felt like I had just stepped out of the Delorean in “Back to the Future”. I was a space alien in heels. People looked at me like I was walking with a piece of toilet paper stuck to my shoe. A runway-length piece of toilet paper. I wasn’t really sure if my look shocked people because it was fashion like they had never seen before or because people only wore this stuff when they hit the clubs at night. Or maybe I truly did look like odd man out. Whatever they were thinking, it was obvious they were unprepared to see a “SATC “look live and in person.

I pulled out my magazine when I got in the reception room to make sure I didn’t mix and match the wrong items to create an outfit that would be featured as a “What Not To Wear” photo online with a fuzzed bar over my eyes. Nope, I had nailed the look right down. Even though the twenty-something receptionist drooled over my purse and my physician, who is approximately ten years older than me called my outfit “fashion forward”, I realized I would never be able to bring the eclectic looks of my favorite TV show to the streets of my town. Most of my fellow city gals and suburbanites were classy and chic but when it came to their fashions, “risk” was still a four-letter word. Of course, some females did attempt to push the envelope at times with sky-high heels and bold colors. Who are these Gucci gurus? Middle schoolers. And I KNOW they aren’t watching my show. (I hope they aren’t watching my show!) I guess I’ll just have to take things slow and infuse my “Sex and the City” clothes into my town with ease. It will be like getting into a pool… one (peep) toe at a time.

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Fashion Magazines: Little Annoyances…

8 Nov
Photo courtesy of allure.com

Photo courtesy of allure.com

I spent this entire week lying around the house with a terrible case of laryngitis and a cold I inherited from my daughter. It was so bad that my doctor told me to rest my vocal chords for several days. What did that mean to me? What it should mean to everyone. Just don’t talk. But you see, you don’t understand. I can’t handle that. I worked on hot-talk radio for over a year just because I like to talk. I’d talk to strangers at a race track, local politicians, Playboy models and strippers. It didn’t matter. Even now? During a conversation, I really have to be aware for how long I’ve talked … and talked… and talked. In fact, it took me over an hour to tell my husband that I wasn’t even allowed to talk. You see the pattern. Hmmm. Maybe that’s why I got the laryngitis in the first place. I’ll just keep telling myself it’s the virus.

Flat on my back in bed, my mouth was shut tight and my brain frying by the minute thanks to daytime TV consisting of soap operas, judge shows and reality reruns. I tried to pick up on the fictional dialog of Maria, the beloved wife of a psychiatrist who was cheating on him with her step-daughter’s husband only because she had lost her memory (for the third time this season) and thought she was actually a southern bell from the Civil War era. Yeah… um, that’s not happening for me. So instead, one rainy day, I ventured off to my mailbox to discover my own little treasure chest had been dropped off in the bin. What had arrived? My guilty pleasure. My escape from reality. My throat’s savior. Not a box of Hall’s cough drops. Even better. My monthly loot of glamour magazines!

Because of my love for the cosmetic, skin care and glamour industry, it’s only natural that one would assume that I am a collector of these monthly periodicals. Some come wrapped in plastic, others with special editions attached. But no matter what the title, who’s on the cover, what the season it is, or what the fashion faux pas of the month is, I’m sucked in. I usually run through each one first to see what catches my eye (pictures, products, models). Then a few days later, I go back to read the “How To’s” and “What’s Hot” tidbits. Then I research everything that jazzes me to see if it is something I want to invest in. Finally? It ends up in the library (aka: bathroom) and over the next month, it gets looked over at “convenient” times to see what I might have missed.

In my years of reading over my glam-rags, two things haven’t changed. And I wish I could say that they are good features. But they aren’t. In fact, they are annoying as hell. I keep hoping they will get better, but actually they have gotten worse. What are these little bothersome items? Let’s break them down, one at a time:

    1. The perfume samples. The last thing a girl with a sinus infection wants to deal with while sick in bed is opening a relaxing magazine that inflicts a scent-induced sneezing spasm. What’s worse? I get sucked in every month. See when I get a magazine, the first thing I do is open the front cover. Immediately I can smell a fragrance that I love. Or so I think. So what do I do? I go hunting through the pages looking for this glorious perfume. I find the first sample. I tear back the little sticky flap and see if that’s it. Nope. Not that one. I keep going. I get to the next little peel-n-sniff sample. I peel back the corner. I inhale. Nope, that’s not it either. This continues for about two or three more before I realize two things:

    a. None of them are the aroma I enjoyed when I first opened the magazine. It most likely is a combination of ALL the little scents blended together into a big cluster-cologne that made the one I loved. Dammit. What a big frigging tease.

    b. I now have the headache from hell. My little annoyed nasal passages, at this point, couldn’t tell the difference between Gwen Stefani’s L L.A.M.B. perfume and Sassy Auburn’s LAMB dinner still in the fridge from last week. I could stick my head in a bag of coffee beans at this point and it wouldn’t matter. (Ferragamo Incanto’s) “Heaven” help me.

and….

    2. The endless subscription postcard insertions. There literally so many, I could use them all to wallpaper a New York City townhouse. Oh come on fashion magazines…give it up! I’m not an idiot. I know how to re-up. And if you think you are going to lure in the poor saps sitting in anyone’s waiting room that might not get your magazine already, you are sadly mistaken. They have all been thrown out. Like I did. When they fell all over my bedroom and living room floor the minute I opened up the magazine to sniff the first damn perfume sample! In my last magazine that came in the mail, I actually counted eight. Eight annoying, cluttering, postage-paid-but-who-cares postcards that I won’t even look at it. Why? Because I know what they are! Magazines should just do myself… and the earth!… a favor. Just send me a letter a month before my subscription runs out. Feel free to offer me a free tote bag or a cosmetic sampler and then… just then… will I consider it.

Thanks to my doctor’s advice, a hidden cell phone, and an occasional piece of packing tape across my mouth, I have managed to get most of my voice back. Just in time for football Sunday screaming. Maybe I’ll be daring and wear one of the magazine perfume samples during the game. I could choose that one I love, Marc Jacob’s “Daisy”. Or was it Armani’s “Diamonds”. Maybe it was Britney’s “Believe”. Or could it have been Paris’s “Fairy Dust”. Never mind. I am getting a headache just thinking about it.

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